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Main Street in Virginia City, Nev., a stop on the Autoweek America Adventure. Photo by HADI KADRI

Prospecting for gold on the Autoweek America Adventure

October 31, 2011

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Halloween isn't just for kids, at least not in Nevada casinos. There are ghouls and ghosts are virtually everywhere, and many people are dressed in costume, too.

On Monday morning at the Autoweek America Adventure briefing, we were told that this will be the longest driving run. Do it right, and it will take eight hours and 15 minutes to complete the missions and make our next layover: Death Valley. How appropriate for Halloween, huh? More pointed is the theme for today's clues--ghosts and ghost towns, of which there are plenty in Nevada.

Whatever we do, we are forewarned by the stern and lovely Natalie, who has orchestrated this band of motorized adventurers, to be sure to obey speed limits. These are small towns and there's one way to make money the old fashioned way--take it from passersby in the form of speeding tickets. We are forewarned and forearmed.

Now, having spent some of my high school years here in Reno--yes, people actually live in the Biggest Little City in the World, and I graduated a Reno High Husky--it was good to see the town again. I say "town" but it is, as all cities of our youth are, as we remember. Reno has grown and sprawled and only a shadow of its former self lies behind the houses that now creep along the hills or the convention center that morphed into a massive structure. Reno has grown, that's for sure. Highways and ring roads try to hold in the progress that just doesn't stop. A "nice, quaint coffee shop" is now a casino that covers an entire city block, and I wonder whether I can still get the same great French toast it served 35 years ago.

That will have to be answered on another trip. Today we head to Virginia City, a ghost town in the hills that lie south and east of Reno. Virginia City is packed with lore of riches earned through prospecting and lost at the card tables in one lousy hand. Its décor is best described as Western tourist chic. A man dressed like an old-time miner pulls a jackass along Main Street. A sign painted on his prospecting pan says he can be a photo prop for a donation.

We're here to solve clues that tell the tales of spirits who walk among the living, uncomfortable with the way in which they left this world and now seek solace and closure. Actually, Team Honey Badger is here to get a Halloween costume, some hard candy and a cold drink. We wander into one of the all-time best novelty shops and after spending too much money, success is ours.

The hike down U.S. 395 is beautiful and long. The meandering two-lane road is dotted with aspen and pine trees, sagebrush and cattle. Today is a glorious autumn day and the sky is a cornflower blue with only the occasional jet condensation trails streaking the sky. The thermostat registers in the mid-70s and there's nothing we'd like more than to stop alongside the road for an extended meditation session with nature, but our destination awaits!

We find the towns we go through--Gardnerville, Minden, Bishop--are each guarded by the local constabulary or a highway-patrol officer. It is now as it was in the Old West: You are welcome to see the sights here, stranger, but if you do anything outside the rules of the law, you will pay. We learn later in the evening that 10 of our fellow competitors did not heed the warning Natalie set forth in the morning meeting and earned themselves speeding tickets. It seems as though the Nevada cops were at least cordial while the California Highway Patrol officers have yet to go through public-relations training. At least they could smile when they rob you, huh?

Team Honey Badger rolled into the Death Valley Ranch parking lot with 32 seconds remaining on the clock that signified our travel window. No, we don't care, but that right there is some good driving and navigating. Now it was time for our final barbecue banquet together and then judging for the costume portion of this event.

Oh, did I bury the lead? Organizer Natalie believed that today's clues would be easy for all to solve, and because we were traveling in a cellular-free zone, our social-media points that could be earned would be minimized. She reasoned that many competitors would arrive in Death Valley with tied scores and the only best tiebreaker would be a costume party--with the locals at their saloon. And, yes, alcohol would be served.

The costumes were inventive and entertaining. There was Speed Racer and Trixie, a couple of male nurses (in scrubs, not whites, thank goodness), a zombie Border Patrol officer and a zombie CHP officer. There was a husband-and-wife Victorian ghost combination that was extraordinary. Graham Rahal and his stepfather, Chris Berry, came as the Will Ferrell character and a teammate from Semi Pro, that epic basketball comedy movie that earned tens of dollars and nary a laugh. The winning duo was Team Plum Floored in matching gangster/flapper outfits from the 1920s.

And what did Team Honey Badger wear? I went as a doctor in dress-white lab coat, while Tommy "T-Bag" Kendall wore his jeans down low, hat tilted askew, à la hip-hop mode. Oh, and did I tell you he found a pair of boxer shorts with what appeared to be his tuchus hanging out?

Dutch Mandel
- Dutch Mandel, Autoweek’s publisher, has been with the company for 29 years. A second-generation car journo, he grew up with exotic cars in the garage. Among his many feats is serving as a chef for a racing team and automotive consultant on the Pixar movies CARS and CARS 2. Read more »See more by this author»